NLC defends title deeds revocation

The National Land Commission now says it invited all the concerned parties to appear before them before they revoked the hundreds of titles across the country.

“All the parties with claims to the particular pieces of land were invited to appear before the Commission and make a presentation on how they acquired those pieces of public utility land. They had the opportunity to present oral or written submissions or even to be represented by their lawyers.

“The commission would then get further information from the ministry of lands on the pertinent issues. Thereafter, at the plenary the commission would make a decision,” NLC Vice Chairperson Abigael Mukolwe said.

COURT

However, some people, including Nasa principal Musalia Mudavadi whose name appears in the Gazette Notice of July 17 as having had his land repossessed by NLC, either did not turn up while others moved to court to stop the commission from taking any action on their titles.

“Behind the gazette notice is a whole lot of information. There were also some parties who after we called them they became frivolous and went to court and in fact there are still many pending matters in court,” said Ms Mukolwe, implying that some well-known major land owners could be using the courts to frustrate the regularisation of titles of public utility land.

Ms Mukolwe also said the gazette notice is not conclusive as the commission discovered during their hearings that some matters that were brought before them for review were subjects of ongoing court cases.

JUBILEE

According to the gazette notice of July 17 (number 6862), the Nasa principal, presidential candidate Joe Nyagah, Nairobi gubernatorial candidate Mike Sonko, Kasarani MP John Njoroge, Kisii Senator candidate Sam Ongeri and George Godia, Kenya’s permanent representative to UNESCO are among the hundreds listed as having had their titles revoked.

However, both Mr Mudavadi and Mr Nyagah have in separate statements denied the allegations of having grabbed land, with the former accusing Jubilee administration of being behind the allegations.

Mr Nyagah also said that he had legally acquired two pieces of land in Kanyakwar, Kisumu County.

“I bought two little plots of land near the Kisumu International Airport when I was a member of the ODM Pentagon,” said Mr Nyagah, who added that even by the time NLC was revoking the same, he had not been issued with the titles.

WOODLEY

On the Woodley Estate land which is one of the two that Mr Mudavadi’s name has been mentioned, Ms Mukolwe said during their deliberations it became clear that there were no titles since the estate is still under a single title.

“People who claim to own land there only have certificates of leases “which to us were strange because they were not conferring any land to them.

“The certificates that people were holding were sub-leasing for 99 years over and above the original lease period. They were flawed inasmuch as people were paying Sh1 million for them,” she said.

TENANCY

She said they were guided by an earlier court ruling in which she too found that the so-called titles weren’t real but just long-term tenancy agreements.

“So having that kind of information in our possession we just cancelled the long term leases that some people were holding. We also observed that people with these leases have not been paying rent to the county government after supposedly turning themselves into permanent land owners,” said Ms Mukolwe.

NLC also said they will be collaborating with other public agencies to ensure that structures put up on road reserves are demolished and the land reverted to the rightful owners which are the public.